Predictive analytics firm Cognisess has launched
Cognisess Drive - a cloud-based assessment platform designed to improve driver
performance on and off the road.
The Cognisess Drive platform combines cognitive science,
data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess the range of
faculties required for work-placed driving to ensure employers are hiring,
monitoring and supporting the safest of driver.

Chris Butt, CEO of Bath-based Cognisess, said: “Cognisess
already has a solution available for the here and now which is easily applied
and is affordable for any size of firm. Regardless of whatever technology
solutions or regulations may emerge in the future, the fact is that the human
factor is always going to be at the forefront when it comes to driving,
operating or monitoring work-related vehicles.

“The key is to gain a better understanding of the human
attributes, abilities and performance of anyone we put near the wheel of a
vehicle for our businesses.”

Cognisess Drive focus on two sciences: cognition - how
the brain performs and functions - and data - how the real time analysis of
thousands of data points helps us predict a driver’s approach to risk and
decision making.

Case studies conducted by Cognisess in Australia
demonstrate that the Cognisess Drive approach produces sustainable improvements
in driver-behaviour and that many fleets can expect a 12-22% decrease in their
total cash cost of operation - as well as other unseen costs such as downtime,
replacement vehicles, insurance claims, losses of productivity and of course
potential exposure to corporate manslaughter charges.
Cognisess’ chief scientific officer Dr Boris Altemeyer said:
“Through our extensive work with fleet operators and the studies we’ve
undertaken with elite performance drivers, we gained insight into not only what
truly ‘good driving’ looks like but we’ve also been able to calibrate the many
different factors that make-up a ‘good driver mindset’.

“What we evidenced showed that there is more to safe or
‘good’ driving than just fast reaction times but it no way this suggests being
inefficient or slow is the answer. Instead it was mapping the connections
between a driver’s brain where decision-making meets risk-taking that the most
interesting insights were found. And particularly when it came to dealing with
the unexpected - rather than the routine background tasks we normally associate
with driving.

“This gave us a fresh perspective from which we could
build our driver tests to give us an objective and repeatable assessment of an
individual’s personality type, cognitive preference, and driving knowledge
whether they were either a very experienced or relatively inexperienced
driver.”

Cognisess Drive is claimed to be the most comprehensive
assessment of driver competencies in the market covering cognition, risk,
behaviour, wellbeing, attributes and driver knowledge within any work-related
driver performance.

The company says that it can be used extensively as an
essential tool for assessing driver potential at the recruitment stage. The platform
is also designed to use the recruitment baselines to maintain and sustain
optimum driving performance throughout the lifespan of the contract or term of
employment via performance dashboards which provide operators with predicative
analytics and real-time reporting.
Mr Butt added: “We recognise that the fleet, haulage and
logistics sectors are facing huge pressure from the public and regulators to
have greater clarity and confidence in their work-related driving practices.

“But we can also see that the industry as a whole is equally
under pressure with an aging population of drivers. This means that firms have
to get better at assessing fitness and competency amongst their current driver
pools whilst also getter better at assessing and recruiting younger talent
coming from very varied and diverse backgrounds.

“In each case, everyone needs to have data-based evidence
that the people that we are putting behind the wheel are - whatever stage of
their working patterns and cycles - capable, risk-assessed and fit and well
enough to be there.”

Featured report

ACFO attended the Road Safety Management Capacity Review (RSMCR) workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss some of the draft recommendations produced within a draft report and available to download below.